Annal:2007 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Coretta Scott King Book Awards for Illustrator in the year 2007. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
Moses: When Harriet Tubman Led Her People to Freedom
Carole Boston Weatherford, Kadir Nelson
- 2007 CS King-Illustrator winner
- 2007 Caldecott honor
- Score: 16.57
“I set the North Star in the heavens and I mean for you to be free…”
Born into slavery, Harriet Tubman hears these words from God one summer night and decides to leave her husband and family behind and escape. Taking with her only her faith, she must creep through woods with hounds at her heels, sleep for days in a potato hole, and trust people who could have easily turned her in.
But she was never alone.
In lyrical text, Carole Boston Weatherford describes Tubman’s spiritual journey as she hears the voice of God guiding her North to freedom on that very first trip to escape the brutal practice of forced servitude. Tubman, courageous and compassionate, and deeply religious, would take nineteen subsequent trips back South, never being caught, but none as profound as this first. Harriet Tubman’s bravery and relentless pursuit of freedom are a testament to the resilience of the human spirit.
This is a unique and moving portrait of one of the most inspiring figures of the Underground Railroad. Kadir Nelson’s emotionally charged paintings embody strength, healing, and hope.
